Courage and Curiosity in "Bless Me, Ultima"

Summary: In the novel "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio stays faithful to his vision. His courage and curiosity helps him find his true meaning of life.

The world is composed of many different cultures. For those of us that have conflicting backgrounds, life is very difficult. Antonio Marez experienced this first hand because of his families conflicting ethnic backgrounds and the plans for him, as he gets older. His father, Gabriel, grew up as a vaquero, or cowboy, who lived off the llano, or plains and would like for Antonio to do the same. On the other hand, Antonio's mother, Maria, grew up as a Catholic farmer and would like Antonio to become a priest. This brings up many questions for Antonio about what is right or wrong, forgiveness, redemption, and evil. Because nobody can give him an answer for all of these questions Ultima, the elderly lady that lives with the Marez's, helps Antonio find a way to answer the questions that he has. Ultima is a curandera...